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Have A Problem? Sleep On It.
Author: Jonathan Warren
“Sleep on it”. It’s a well-used phrase which basically means waiting till the next day so you have more time to think about a problem. Well, a new study suggests that when faced with a difficult problem, sleeping on it really does help.
Previous research proposed that the more we consciously think about a decision, the worse the decision ends up being made. According to the researchers, what we need to do in these situations is to spend some time in unconscious thought. In other words: get to bed and sleep first.
A more recent study carried out by Lancaster University and published in the journal Memory and Cognition, set out to see if sleeping on it worked well for both easy and difficult problems. Participants were given a set of tasks which varied in difficulty. They were then split up into three groups: one which had to do the tasks right away; one which had time to think about the task; and one which was allowed to get some sleep first.
The sleep group ended up performing significantly better than the others. It’s also worth noting that sleeping on it only made a difference when faced with difficult tasks and not easy ones.
